Matt Borths
Major Advisor
Erik Seiffert
Education
BS, Geological Sciences | The Ohio State University, 2008
BS, Anthropology | The Ohio State University, 2008
Email
matthew.borths@stonybrook.edu
Research Interests
I am interested in the evolution and radiation of carnivorous mammals through the Cenozoic. I am focusing on understanding the systematic relationships of African Hyaenodontidae, the only terrestrial carnivores in Africa for most of the Paleogene.
I hope to establish a hypothesis of hyaenodontid phylogeny that can be used to understand the evolution of carnivory in Hyaenodontidae that can then be compared to the evolution of carnivory in other mammalian lineages. I am combining dental and postcranial character data to understand the systematic relationships between hyaenodontids and I am using morphometric data derived from cranial and postcranial material to understand their ecomorphological diversity. I am also interested in understanding the evolution of Afrotheria and the origins of this endemic African clade in the Late Cretaceous of the Gondwanan continents.
I have participated in fieldwork in the Paleocene of North Dakota (Dr. John Hunter, Ohio State), the Cretaceous of Utah (Dr. David Elliot, Ohio State), the Neogene of Kenya, the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar (Dr. David Krause, Stony Brook University), and the Paleogene of Germany (Dr. Thomas Martin, University of Bonn), Oman, and Egypt (Dr. Erik Seiffert, Stony Brook University)..
Published Abstracts
Borths, M. and Martin, T. 2009. Clawing through the Gimarota: Distal Phalange Diversity in a Late Jurassic Mammalian Fauna. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29: 3.
Borths, M. and Hunter, J. 2008. Gimme Shelter? Locomotor trends and mammalian survivorship at the K-Pg Boundary. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28:3A.
Borths, M. R. and Ausich, W.I. 2007. Crinoids in Lilliput: Morphological Change in the Class Crinoidea Across the Ordovician-Silurian Boundary. 2007 GSA Annual Meeting Abstracts with Programs 39: 6.
